Apostrophe hell.

[marshmallowfinder]

I keep seeing the incorrect use of apostrophes in dates, for example 'the 90's.'

It should be '90s. The apostrophe indicates the missing characters. It does NOT have one before the letter s. The apostrophe is so misused...sob! Can we do anything?

But James IS a biblical name

@EarringsandLipstick Nope, I completely disagree with you - the name is neither here nor there - but as someone said upthread, the English language is endlessly fascinating (and confusing!)

But it is the car of the Scotts so it has to be the Scotts' car. There isn't an entity called the Scott. You could say the Scott family's car, or Jill Scott's car but not the Scott's car.

@EarringsandLipstick I don't think OP is correct.

If the sentence uses the word Scotts before car, you have already pluralised the word Scott.

Therefore you have to add an apostrophe after the first S and add another S afterwards to indicate possession.

Or you don't add the second S at all, as we have already discussed with the James' example.

But do you say “James” or “Jameses”?

You can disagree! But I'm correct - or rather OP is.

You are mixing up singular and plural. The family is one (single) entity. You are thinking of it as the people within it (plural).

It's like when people say 'the family were...'. It's 'the family was...'. It's singular.

The family is called Scott. Not Scotts.

But do you say “James” or “Jameses

I now say 'James' only because the other is more tongue-twisty to say!

Yes, but if you aren't using the word family you aren't using Scott as a single entity. You wouldn't say "We are going to see the Scott tonight". It would be the Scotts, or the the Scott family.

Therefore it still has to be the Scott family's car, or the Scotts' car. It can't be the Scott's car.

Interesting! I say Jameses (and Lizes/Lises).

I really ought to stop this and clean the bathroom…

The one that confused me when I used to type up minutes of meetings was (as said aloud) - "dotting all the eyes and crossing all the tees".

One boss said to type it i's and t's the other said no apostrophe as it is plural... Still don't know the correct way to write it.

It is the Scotts’ car!

what about do’s and don’ts? However you write it, it looks wrong.

@EarringsandLipstick The family are only referred to as Scott when the word family is also used.

You don't say "We're going to see the Scott" or "The Scott have three children"

They are the Scott family or the Scotts. So when you refer to their car, the use of the apostrophe will depend on which of those two nouns you are using. Otherwise the grammar rules have been incorrectly applied.

You're suggesting Scott is a plural noun like children. But it isn't. It's a surname which is applied to one person. When referring to a group of people with the same surname you need to pluralise the name to Scotts.

Sorry @EarringsandLipstick, but you're wrong about this. It's not an 'agree to disagree' situation either.

On the other hand, 1980s vs 1980's (for example) is a style choice, or at least that's my understanding of it. It's become much more common to drop the apostrophe in these situations, so 1980's does look clunkier now, but it's not wrong if used consistently.

Apostrophes are occasionally needed for simple plurals @BeyondMyWits. An example is the plural of letters (mind your p's and q's) when the apostrophe is needed to aid ease of reading. In your example, i's without the apostrophe would almost certainly be confused with the word is at first glance. The boss who recommended using the apostrophe in this situation is right.

There’s a sign at a dental practice that reads ‘Patient’s parking’. I asked them if they only had one patient.

I think that's always one of these exceptions where the apostrophe aids clarity. But it annoys me because it's inconsistent and messy.

Good God, wrong on so many levels

@SnakesAndArrows

But do you say “James” or “Jameses”?

Either

Oh god, I'm a Scott and I'm even more confused now 😂. We were given a cushion and a sign with 'The Scott's' on it. That's not right is it?

Definitely not right!

@DappledThings bought by children so that will never be mentioned!! 😀

Anyway I can talk, I should have an apostrophe in my username...or is it TWO?!!😝

James' book is correct and has always been correct.